Look at Isaiah 40 together, Isaiah
40. It's a privilege to stand in
the pulpit that my dear, dear, dear friend stands in regularly.
I don't have a better friend on earth than him and Bruce Crabtree. And every time we talk, most
of the time we talk an hour, And I'm very thankful for what
the Lord's done for Lynn. I prayed and prayed and prayed,
and I know you have too. The Lord opened the door for
her. And it's just like it took the death of Christ to save us,
it took somebody's death to give her those organs. But I tell you what, it's a wonderful
thing. It's a wonderful thing. I hope somebody can take this
old sorry heart and use it for these days. But it's just delightful
to think about them. I love them. Wonderful to see
all you all again. And I'm gonna try to bring a
message here from Isaiah 40. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. But you see what he said there?
Comfort my people, my people, saith your God. God says, I want
you to comfort my people, my people. The foundation of God
stand is sure. The Lord knows them that are
his. They knows them that are his. Then he goes on to say,
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received
double of the Lord's hand, double for all her sins. The voice of
him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord.
Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall
be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And
the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."
When you think about God and the way He is, the earth is the
Lord's and the fullness thereof. It belongs to Him. This world
and everything in it, The heavens His throne, the earth is His
footstool, and He reigns upon the earth. He reigns among the
children of men. He does according to His will
in the sea, the heavens, the sea, and all deep places. He
has to leave Him nobody. So this is the God that we're
talking about. He says, My people, I want you
to comfort My people, My people. There's a certain number He's
calling My people. No wonder David said, Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest, and causes, causes to approach
unto thee. When he talks about His people,
calling them My people, he's talking about His chosen, His
elect, His purchased, His beloved, His sheep, vessels of mercy,
vessels of honor, His bride, His beloved, Oh, he's got a lot
of names for it. When he talks about my people,
by people, he passes by nations and multitude of people and counts
them as drop in the bucket. Look down here in verse 12. This
is who we're talking about now when he says, my people who have
measured the waters in the hall of his hand, meted out the heaven
with a span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure.
and weighed the mountains in scales and hills in a balance.
You know how many mountains there are in this world? He said, listen, he just measures
them like ain't nothing. Just measures them. And all the dust of the
earth. He said, that's just nothing.
It's just nothing. Weigh that in scales. Weigh that
in scales. Then look what he said. Who hath
directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath
taught him? With whom took he counsel? Who
did he counsel with? Who did he say, what should I
do? How should I deal with men? How
should I act in this world? How should I conduct myself in
this world? And who instructed him and taught
him in the path of judgment? Who taught him what judgment
was and how to judge and do the judgment? And who taught him
any knowledge? Who taught God knowledge? Where
did he learn anything? And who showed him the way of
understanding? You know what he says? He said,
I'm going to tell you what it's really about. He said, look at
all these nations. Look at all of them. Look at
all of them with all their kings and all their crowns and all
their might and all their power and all their glory and all their
wealth and all their pomp and all their glory. He said, the
nations are just a drop, just a drop in a bucket, and are counted
as the small dust of the balance. He take us up the isles, all
the islands out there, he takes them up as a very little thing.
And down in verse 17, all nations before him are as nothing, and
they are counted to him less than nothing and vanity. And
this is the God, this is the God. It says, comfort you, comfort
you, my people, saith your God. Comfort you, comfort you, my
people. We're His people, we're His property. Everything belongs
to Him and yet He says, my people, His chosen. He's done more for
them than He has anybody else in this earth. He bought them,
paid for them with His own precious blood and He brought them near
to Himself. He came where we were and brought
us near to Himself. And He turned around and set
His heart upon us. The scripture said He loved us
with an everlasting love and with cords of loving kindness
He called us. And when He says, My people,
can you by faith put yourself in this number? Can you say like
Thomas did? When the Lord Jesus, he said,
I'm not gonna believe unless I can see the holes in his hand. And I can see the rip in his
side. I'm not gonna believe. And about
the time he said that, the Lord stood before him, said, here
Thomas. And he cried out, my Lord and
my God. Oh, can you say that my Lord
and my God? We sang that old hymn, when I
can read my title clear. Can you read your title clear
in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Can you say
I'm accepted in the beloved? God is full of care. Oh, he's
full of care for his people. Oh, how he loves his people.
How he watches over his people. And I'll tell you what, comfort
ye. He says, comfort ye, comfort
ye. Comfort the one who is having problems in their home. Comfort
the one who's discouraged. Comfort the one who's having
marital problems. Comfort the one who's got a job
that's just a burden to him and he has to deal with things all
the time. Oh, comfort the one with that
eye that's got big tears in it. Comfort that one with a heart
that aches. Comfort my people, saith your
God. So who is it? Who is it that
comforts the Lord's people? Who is it? And God says, comfort
them. When God says to comfort my people,
He means to comfort His people. Who is it that comforts His people? Well, the Holy Spirit, He's called
the Comforter. Our Lord said, I go away, but
when I go away, I'll send another Comforter and He'll come. And
He said, He'll come and He'll comfort you. And He alone, the
Holy Spirit alone, through the Lord Jesus Christ, can comfort
the heart of His dear children. And He uses instruments. He uses
instruments. And I tell you, there's different
instruments that He uses to comfort His people in the world. Do you
know that God Himself gave every one of us an angel? Do you know
that? He gave every one of us an angel.
In fact, I think He gave me too. You know what they are? One of
them is goodness over here and the other is mercy over there.
But let me show you what I'm talking about. Look over in Hebrews,
Hebrews chapter one. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. There are evil spirits and oh my, that's why he said,
try the spirits, whether they be of God or not. But look here
in Hebrews chapter one, look what he says here. You know,
And we complain about these evil spirits and all their power overs.
You know, we talked about, Revelation talks about the great dragon.
Talks about Apollon. And he talks about Satan as a
roaring lion. But God has done whipped him.
God done put him down. God done put him on a chain.
But he has ministering spirits sent to minister to us. And look
what it says here in verse 13 and 14 of chapter one. But to which of the angels said
he at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool? Listen to this. Are they not
all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who
shall be heirs of salvation? God gave us spirits, and I tell
you, you find in, I mean, angels, and you find throughout the scripture,
especially Psalm 34, and you look at it one of these days
when you have time, said the Lord has an angel that goes before
us. And he told his disciples, he
says, you be very, very careful that you despise one of these
little ones. For their angels do always behold
my Father in heaven. And I tell you, their angel.
So you be careful what you say about one of God's little ones.
And I tell you, it's like Michael, you know, when Michael the archangel,
he came to David. I mean, excuse me, to Daniel.
He came to Daniel when Daniel was by the riverside. And he
came to Daniel and Jude tells us that they were disputing over
where Moses was buried. And I tell you, he said he had
sent angels before them. And they come to fight our battles.
You remember over in 2 Kings, I believe it is, that there was
a great, great army that came down on, on, around, surrounded
Jerusalem. And they going to, oh, is this
an army, a countless army. And everybody's scared to death,
and it's all about to start to death. There's a couple of old
lepers hanging around outside and said, well, if we go in,
we're gonna starve to death. And if we go into their hands,
said maybe they'll feed us before they kill us. So they went over
to the camp over there and they got over there and 85,000 people
was dead. And there was food everywhere.
And they went and I'll tell you what, they opened up the gates
and you know what killed them? The scripture said, the Lord
sent the angels of the Lord. Oh, listen, I tell you, beloved,
God sends his angels. And I tell you, he had an angel
around Lazarus' deathbed. Remember old Lazarus? Poor Lazarus. And I tell you, Lazarus was laying
at the rich man's gate and the dogs was licking his sores. And
the scriptures tells us that when he died, the angels came
and laid hold on him and carried him up to Abraham's bosom. He
carried him. And I tell you, angels are sent
to comfort you, comfort you, my people. They put Simon Peter
in jail. Told him, said, we kept telling
you, quit preaching, quit preaching, quit preaching. So they put him
in jail. He's laying there sound asleep. If me and you had been
in jail, we'd been awake all night. Oh, call some bondsman,
get me out of here. But oh no, he laid down and went
to sleep. An angel of the Lord come in
there. and had to wake him up, said, come on, follow me, and
took him out of prison. And they went back to get him,
and he said, he's not there, you know what he's doing? He's
standing there under preaching. And when Paul had been on that
shipwreck for over 14 days, sun never shone, moon never shone,
never saw a star. And an angel stood by him one
night and said, you tell him, Don't you be afraid. Everybody
on this ship's going to be saved. Every single one of them. So
God, God uses angels. You know, I got today, I got
in behind some slow, slow people, slow people. Then I got in a
traffic jam on a bad wreck. And you know, it never bothers
me much. And I'll tell you why, because God knows what's down
the road. He'll slow you down just when you need to be slowed
down. You know, you may say, boy, you're a nut. Well, that's
all right. That's okay, that's okay. But I tell you what, I got two
angels here by me. You can't see them. They're principalities
and powers, the scriptures tells us. Christ is the head of principalities
and powers. Those are some of the principalities
and powers. God sends archangels to do certain
things for his people. And he's never, ever gonna, you
know, the angels and the Lord that campeth around about them
that fear the Lord, the scripture says, Psalm 34 said. And camps
around them, and camps around them. And I'll tell you, tell
you somebody else, not only angels, but preachers. Preachers. Preachers are to comfort the
Lord's people. You know, that's a, I just, I know the scriptures
tells us where scriptures are profitable for correction, for correction, instruction in righteousness. But I tell you, God calls his
preachers to comfort his people, comfort his people. How in the
world is God gonna comfort his people? Well, you know, there's
some people that's high maintenance, high maintenance. I don't know
if you've ever been around any of them, but there's some folks
just real high maintenance. And you know what, you need somebody,
they need somebody to hold their hand. They need to be pumped
up all the time. Need to baby them. Need to stroke
them. Is that what you need to do?
No, no. I remember one time, tell you
a true story. Had my first grandbaby. His name was Josh. And we carried
him with us everywhere we went. And I had a pacifier in my pocket
one day and didn't know it. And I was talking about pacifying
people. People need pacifiers and gotta
be stroked and gotta be pacified. And I read you in my pocket and
I said, yeah, right here's one you wanted. But oh my, and oh, surely, surely
people don't need to be stroked. No, no, that's not how you comfort
the Lord's people. You comfort the Lord's people
with the blessed gospel of grace and with the gracious doctrine
You've covered God's people. Tell them about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Tell them about His blessed power.
Tell them about His blessed grace. Tell them about His compassion.
Tell them about His personality. You know, when we think about
Christ, and I've said this to you before, I think, when you
think of Christ, do you see a physical image in your mind? I do not
see a physical image of Christ in my mind. And I absolutely
hate it when I see these pictures of Jesus, you know, with the
hard old open old out of his chest and the old blonde-headed
looks like, as Tim James said, looks like Wild Bill Hickok,
you know, just real blonde-headed and long hair. And, you know,
and he was a Jew. He's dark, dark-headed. The scripture
said his hair was black, black as a raven's. And I'll tell you,
you preaches the grace of God and gracious doctrine. There's
no comfort in the other doctrines. There's no comfort in free will.
There's no comfort in Arminianism. Is there any comfort? Let me
ask you this. Is there any comfort in preaching you're a child of
God today and you may fall away sometime later on? Is there any
comfort in that? A child of God today and a devil
tomorrow? To say I'm redeemed by the blood
and yet the blood of Christ is not sufficient unless you mix
your faith. The only thing that'll make the
blood of Christ effectual is for your faith to be added to
it. Your tears to be added to it. Your repentance to be added
to it. Your good thoughts to be added
to it. Your good works to be added to it. Or is the blood
of Christ sufficient to save His people from their sins? Without
anything else being added to it. You know how to mess up the
gospel of the grace of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ? Add anything
to it and you've ruined it. I mean you add the minutest detail
to it and you've messed it up. Oh, the gospel! I tell you what,
I know this, that if salvation wasn't by grace, if salvation
wasn't by Christ, if God hadn't in His sovereign mercy sent His
Son into this world and made Him in my room and in my stead,
Suffer my punishment, suffer my wrath, bear my sin and bear
your sin. And if he had not done that,
there's no way under God's heaven that a soul on this earth could
be saved. If God left one sin for us to
put away, would everyone be damned? We wouldn't even know what sin
it was. What if he told us we didn't know what sin it was?
He said, I'm gonna leave one sin in your life. Now, if you
can get rid of that one, I'll take you to glory. And then he
wouldn't tell you what it is. You'd be going through your mind,
what have I done, what have I done? And that's what Armenians do
anyway. Oh my, what comfort is in that,
that my standing depends upon me. that my blessings depend
upon me? I tell you, we, you and I, if
it depends on us to do something to get a blessing from God, none
of us will ever have a blessing. If blessings, we're not waiting
for blessings, we've already been blessed. How can we be any
more blessed than we're already blessed? Why can't we have more
than we already got? You know, what more do we need
than the Lord Jesus Christ? What more do we need than His
righteousness? What more do we need than His
blood? Oh, God, make us preachers, make
me as a preacher, oh, make me a comforter with the gospel of
God's dear Son. Paul said it like this, he said,
we preach not ourselves, We're not talking about our ministries
and all what great preachers we are and all the things we've
accomplished. We got worldwide ministries and
we got all this many tapes and this many CDs and this many people
listening. Oh, we don't preach ourselves. People talk about their church.
There ain't never been a man had a church. The church belongs
to Christ. But oh my, make us preachers,
and oh we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, ourselves
as servants for your sake. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
God. come down in the womb of a virgin. What did he do? He came into
this world, not for himself, but he came into this world for
these people that he says are my people. He came into this
world to represent a people that the Father gave him in a covenant
of grace. And I'll tell you what, He represented
them perfectly. From the day He was born, until
the day He died, until the day He ascended to glory, and He's
still taking care of His people. Right now. And oh, why did He
do it? So He could be just God. Would
you change God? Would you change God in His justice?
God is just. God is holy. God is everything. And I tell you, how in the world
can He stay holy? How can He stay just and yet
take a bunch of miserable worms, grasshoppers, sinners of the
darkest dye? How can He take them who was
born in sin, shaped in iniquity, with a heart full of enmity against
God? How can He take that people?
And how can He take them and change them and slay that enmity
and slay that hatred that they have for God? How can He do that? By making Christ to be us in
His stead. Taking our Lord Jesus Christ
and Him saying, Father, instead of taking them, take me! Instead
of punishing them, punish me! Instead of pouring your wrath
on them, pour it out on me. Instead of inflicting eternal
death on them, put death on me, let me die. Instead of putting
them in a grave where they can never come out, I'll go to the
grave and I'll sanctify it and I'll purify it and I'll perfume
it and I'll come back out so that everyone for whom I died
will go to a grave, but one of these days, just like I rose,
they'll rise again too. Oh my, oh what a blessed Savior
we got. What a blessed Savior. And you
know, he's right now, right now, You know, this is the thing,
He can be in heaven and He can be omnipresent everywhere on
this planet. He can be in glory and be in
you. Oh my, our Wednesday nights,
our Wednesday nights is special meetings for me. They're special
meetings for me with God's saints. Oh, they're wonderful, wonderful
meetings for me. I just love to meet with the
Lord's people. And they love to come. They say, oh, I just
cannot wait till Wednesday night. I just cannot wait. I said, this
is, I have to be out here in this old filthy world. And I
said, I have to deal with this old world. Said to come in here
and get cleansed, get strengthened, get encouraged, get fed. I remember
a preacher. He passed a little church out
in North Carolina. Boy, I'll tell you what, he is
mean. I think he had a little man syndrome. He's a little feller,
way smaller than I am. I think he had a little man syndrome. But anyway, to make a long story
short, he was mean. He just got mean. And he told
a bunch of people one time, I'm not here to comfort you. You
won't comfort you, go someplace else. There was a dear lady in
that church. When I'd go out there and be
around them, she'd cut my hair. She had her own beauty shop,
and she'd cut my hair every time I was out there. And she was
such a sweet gal and had a couple babies. Her husband was just
wonderful. Well, she got cancer. She got really, really sick.
She came in late one Sunday morning, just barely could go. She was
trying to. And this sorry preacher said,
if you can't be here on time, don't even come at all. Didn't
show any kindness, any compassion, any mercy. The woman got cancer. She ended up dying. Now, what
kind of preacher would do that? What kind of preacher would do
that? Huh? Oh, my. And no, I wasn't to mistreat
one of the Lord's people. Oh God, I'd rather do anything
as mistreat one for whom Christ died. And I tell you, you hear
preachers and they seem theologically correct. But when they're preaching,
like old Scott Richardson used to say, he said a lot of good
things, but I didn't hear nothing about a lamb. Where's the lamb? That's what we want to know.
That's like Abraham and I going up the mountain. Father, we got
everything we need. For a sacrifice, but where in
the world is the lamb? And that's what you wonder, where's
the lamb? When preaching sometimes. Oh,
comfort you, comfort you, my people. I'll tell you something
else that needs to comfort the Lord's people. And you need to
comfort one another. You know, you can comfort one
another. Let me look over here in 2 Corinthians 1. With me,
2 Corinthians 1. This is such a blessing over
here. And look what it says here. You
know, God's people can comfort one another and they do comfort
one another. I could not tell you how many
times I've been comforted by the Lord's people. I've been
comforted by Todd. I've been comforted by Bruce.
I've been comforted by people in our congregation. I've been
comforted by lots of people. But look what he said here in
verse three. Blessed be God. even the father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. I love this right here, the father
of mercies, the father of mercies. You mean we got a father who
makes mercies, who produces mercies, that mercies come from him. And
then not only is he the father of mercies, but the God of all
comfort. Now watch this now, who comforts us in all our tribulation. Everybody has tribulation. There's
one of three places you're gonna be at in your life at any given
time. You're either in trouble, coming
out of trouble, or going into trouble. That's just the nature
of life. That's the nature of living.
And that's the nature of you being you. We bring a lot of
troubles on ourselves because of the way we think, the way
we do, and the way we act. But we bring a lot on ourselves.
But look what he says. Oh, he comforted us in our tribulation. I thought, let me tell you a
couple of things. I always said for years and years, I never
knew what a trial was. I'd never had a trial. But then
I got to thinking about it. I got a daughter. She's a drug
addict and been a drug addict for years and years and years.
I ain't talked to her in almost three years. Carried her to rehab
five different times. Last time I talked to her, I
just couldn't deal with it anymore. I just had to say I can't talk. I just can't deal with it anymore.
So now when I see parents with children and they have trouble
with their children, they've got a son or a daughter or a
brother or a sister that's hooked on drugs or alcohol or something,
I can identify with them. I can have compassion. I can
comfort them because I've been comforted in my tribulation.
And then, then, then, you know, I had a wife. Married 44 years. The Lord took her out. He took
her. She belonged to him and he's
got the right to take her anytime he wants to. Take her any way
he wants to. He's God. And she knowed that,
she understood that, but I'm telling you, You would not believe
how many people comforted me in that situation. And her boat
brought meals, brought cards, come and stay, come and visit.
It was nothing that we didn't want for. And so all these things that
we have happened to us, God comforts us when we're tried. When we're
going through a great, think it not strange concerning the
fire trial which is to try you. And God, he comforts us in our
trials, in our troubles, in our tribulations. And you know why
he does that? Look what it says. That we may
be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. When other
people get in trouble, we see the trouble coming. We see what
they're going through. Todd and Lynn's going through
trouble. They're going through trouble. Maybe some of you are
going through trouble. But I tell you what, when we
get tried, he does that so we can comfort one another with
the comfort that God gave us. When he comforted me through
my things, I can comfort people now. Before that, things didn't
move me much, but now I know what it is to have a burdened
heart, and then we comfort We can comfort one another like
God comforted us. Comfort one another. Oh, that
when you've tasted the Lord is gracious, be gracious. When you're
up, you help those that are down. And when you're sad and down,
some days do you ever get up and it's just dark? You have
no explanation for it. Just have a dark day. Just a
dark day. Did anybody ever have one of
those? You just get up and you say, boy, it's just a day that's
just dark. It's just a dark. There's no
light. There's no light. But you keep
on. Why? Why? Because you come and you hear
the gospel and people help you. And you go find somebody who's
full of joy and strength and get you some comfort. And then
go especially to the great comforter souls and ask for him to comfort
you and then go comfort somebody else. Well, I've got to hurry. I don't know how long, I don't
have a clue how long I've been preaching. Why did God say comfort you my
people? Because he loves them. He loves
them. He says they're my people. Somebody
read tonight, the trees of the Lord. He comforts them and He's
comforted by sending His Son, by sending His Spirit. And I
tell you one of the most blessed things that comforts me as much
as anything that's ever happened in my life is when I found out
that Christ put all my sin away 2,000 years ago. Not when I believed, but I believed
because my sins were put away. He called on me because I couldn't
call on Him. He came to me because I couldn't
come to Him. And when I found out that all
my sins, past, present, and all the ones that I haven't even
committed yet is taken care of 2,000 years ago. Oh my, you're
looking at a man that right now, only thing gonna change about
me when I go to glory is my body. I'm still going to be righteous.
I'm still going to be holy. I'm going to still know Jesus
Christ and I'm going to enjoy his presence. You know, we're
not going to change that much. Just have a new body. And speak
easy. Look what it says there in the
margin here of Isaiah 40. He says, speak ye comfortably.
Speak to the heart. Speak to the heart. That's what
he's talking about. Speak to the heart, to Jerusalem,
to the church. Cry unto her, her warfare is
accomplished. The captain of our salvation
has defeated everything. Her iniquities pardoned. I put
them away by the blood of my cross. And then look what it
says in verse one. She hath received with the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. Oh my, what in the world you
reckon this means? Double for all our sins. Twice
as much as our sins deserved. But double is put for abundantly.
Abundantly. It's two ways. You know old top
lady said, Be a sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make
me pure. Well that's how we're doubly
saved. Christ was punished for us. That's one way it's put away. The wrath of God. And then he
rewarded us as if we'd done it ourselves. Now, can you get that? He treats us as if we done it
ourselves. You know why? Because we are
in him and what he did, we did. Look what it says down here.
I think, let me see where it's at in verse, His reward's with Him. Where's
it at down here? Oh yeah, I'm down in verse 10.
Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand. His arms will
root for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him.
His reward is with Him and His work before Him. And oh my, He
comforts His people. And I'll tell you another thing,
you know what? What is awful is for an uncomfortable Christian
to be around somebody mourning, complaining, long faced. Everybody
ever asks me, they ask me, say, how you doing? I said, I have
no complaints, absolutely none. I've been saying that for years.
My mother-in-law said to me one time, said, you got to be feel
bad sometimes. I said, if I do, you'll never
know it. And that's the way I just, why? Why? God give us something to comfort
His people with. Oh my, electing grace, that's
comforting. Covenant of love, that's comforting. A covenant ordered in all things
and sure sealed with the blood of Christ. He said, go and tell
Judah, listen, behold your God. That's comforting, that's comforting. And I tell you, God's done something
for his people down through history. Brought Israel out of Egypt,
Daniel from the lions dead, children from the fiery furnace, and us
from sin and death. And then we have present mercy.
Somebody's mentioned that tonight praying or something back there.
He said, they're present mercies. Thank you for our mercies. And
our present mercies, what a mercy that God led us gather here tonight
as God's people for one reason, to worship the Lord, to hear
the Word of God, and to love one another and bring glory and
honor to our blessed Savior. What better thing, what a most
glorious thing. What a mercy. That's a present
mercy. That's a present mercy. Our Father, In the precious name,
blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing
us to meet here tonight. Thank you for these dear children
of God, these dear saints. Lord, we thank you for them. Thank you for the abundance of
grace that you've given them. Thank you that you've taught
them the gospel and you've taught it to them well. We thank you
for a preacher and a pastor that loves them and comes and preach
to them faithfully, clearly, and plainly, lovingly. And Lord,
we do pray for the dear preacher and his wife and Aubrey. God
bless them. God strengthen them. God encourage
them. God make them whole and make
it to where they can come back and worship again. Bless Todd
to come and preach. And Lord, I know these people
love you and love him and miss him. So Lord Jesus, dear, keep
these people. Keep them as the apple of your
eye. Keep them close to your heart. And Lord, we know we love
you, but not near like we should. So work in our heart. Give us
a greater love for you than we've ever had. And give us a great,
great love for one another. We ask these things in the Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. The Lord bless you.